The Week in Review

23-29 October 2023

Bogdan Matei, 28.10.2023, 14:00

Summit

The
agenda of the Romanian president Klaus Iohannis on Thursday and
Friday included the European Council and the Euro Summit in inclusive
format, both of which took place in Brussels. Iohannis said Romania
would remain a firm supporter of the neighbouring Ukraine invaded by
Russian troops and called for further EU support for Kyiv for as long
as necessary. He said Romania supports the opening of EU accession
talks with Ukraine and the majority Romanian-speaking Republic of
Moldova. Prime minister Marcel Ciolacu also travelled to Brussels on
Thursday to meet the EU transport commissioner Adina Vălean and the
commissioner for the economy Paolo Gentiloni. The talks with the
representatives of the Commission took place after the government in
Bucharest submitted the bill on the public pensions system as part of
the commitment made by Romania under the National Recovery and
Resilience Plan.

Salaries

The
Ciolacu government agreed with the trade unions and the employers’
associations the new levels of the minimum salaries in the building,
agriculture and food sectors. The employees
in these fields will not lose money when they start paying their
health insurance, of which they have been exempt so far. From the
employers’ associations, Cristian Erbaşu says the measure was
necessary in order to avoid the proliferation of black market labour
and the loss of labour in the building sector, which is struggling
with a shortage of labour compared with the demands on the Romanian
construction sector.

Emergency
order

The
coalition government formed by the Social Democratic Party and the
National Liberal Party says it will continue to promote a rigorous
approach to the management of public funds
in order to reduce the budget deficit level.
It drafted a new emergency order to diminish end-of-year spending,
placing restrictions on public institutions and town halls, including
with respect to holding festivals and competitions. Public
institutions can no longer make legal commitments for the provision
of office equipment and other goods and services intended for
maintenance and functioning or repairs. The bill also stipulates that
the payment of salary rights earned in court by public sector
employees will be postponed for 2024. The Social Democrat prime
minister Marcel Ciolacu says, however, that people shouldn’t worry,
because there is enough money in the budget for salaries and other
expenses pledged by the state. Pensions will see an indexation to
keep up with the inflation rate, 13.5%, as of 1st January
2024. The new measures taken by the government come shortly after the
data published by Eurostat, the European statistical office, showing that Hungary and Romania have the highest government deficit level of
all the 27 EU member states, with 6.6% and 6.3%, respectively.

Motion

From
the opposition, the Save Romania Union and the Liberal splinter group
the Force of the Right have submitted a simple motion against the
Liberal finance minister Marcel Boloş, saying expenses have exploded
during his term. According to the initiators of the motion, in order
to raise money for the government treasury, Boloş and Ciolacu cut
taxpayers’ incomes by introducing a new round of tax hikes, while
small entrepreneurs had to suffer. The two are accused of choosing
short-term financial gains at the expense of long-term stability and
prosperity. The motion will be debated on Monday and put to the vote
the following day.

Justice

The
Romanian Senate adopted a bill initiated by the government under
which the so-called fugitives from the law will get an additional
three years in prison unless they surrender themselves to be taken
into custody within a week of receiving the sentence. The Liberal
justice minister Alina Gorghiu says the amendment will discourage
absconding to evade serving time in jail. Quite a
few Romanian high-profile officials are fleeing custody, including
the former head of the body fighting organised crime, Alina Bica and
the Social Democrat president of the Neamț county
council Ionel Arsene, both of whom have
fled to Italy; the former Bucharest mayor Sorin Oprescu, who has fled
to Greece; and the businessman, politician and member of the
parliamentary committee overseeing the activity of the Romanian
Intelligence Service, Sebastian Ghiță.

Pilgrimage

Tens of thousands of Orthodox pilgrims stood in long queues this week
to have a chance to visit the relics of St Demetrius the New, the
patron saint of Bucharest and whose feast day is celebrated on 27th
October. St Demetrius the Myrrh Streamer was celebrated a day
earlier, on the 26th, with his relics being brought over
from Greece on Tuesday for this occasion. The faithful can visit the
relics of these two saints until Sunday, as well as those of saints
Constantine and Helen and of the holy hierarch Nectarios, all of
which are placed in a special structure put up in the courtyard of
the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest. At a census conducted last
year, 85.3% of the persons who stated their religion said they were
raised as Orthodox Christians; 4.5% as Roman-Catholic, 3% as Reformed
and 2.5% as Pentecostal, while 0.3% said they did not belong to a
religious group or did not believe in God.